Fruits and vegetables, such as kiwis, apples, peaches, nectarines, plums, potatoes, avocados, and the like, are customarily sorted and/or graded in accordance with one or more physical characteristics. The articles, suitably fruits or vegetables, are deposited from loading chutes, for example, onto singulator conveyors, each of which carry or transport the articles in single file for depositing into moving cups for subsequent weighing, grading, color sorting, deflecting into cull bins, and the like. The constant impacting of the fruit for example, with the substantially non-yielding moving cups results in unnecessary bruising of some fruit, excessive noise, and the creation of possible negative psychological factors for both customer and operator.
The present invention provides dampening means, structurally removed from the cup but cooperating therewith, which is resiliently depressable by the cup when a fruit is dropped thereinto to thereby soften the impact between fruit and cup. More specifically, a horizontally extending pin secured to each cup adjacent a closed end portion thereof depresses a dampening plate. A plurality of such plates are pivotally mounted substantially circumferentially on rotating star wheels such that each fruit dropping into a cup causes the dampening plate to be controllably resiliently depressed to thereby soften the resultant impact. After impact, the dampening plates are spring urged to their original position. Stop means mounted to the star wheels control the extent of pivoting of the dampening plates; strength of the springs controls their degree of resiliency.